US steps up hostility towards Cuba with attacks on cultural exchanges

[Judi Lynn]

Washington, Dec 27 (Prensa Latina) The exclusion of the Gente de Zona duo from a concert in Miami today marks the end of a year of escalation of US hostility towards Cuba, during which there were numerous attacks on cultural exchanges.

Media from the southern state of Florida reported earlier this week that the Cuban duo were removed from the program of an end-of-year event in that city at the request of local politicians, including Mayor Francis Suarez.

The news follows the cancellation last month of a concert by another Cuban artist, singer Haila Maria Mompie, whom Suarez himself named 'persona non grata'.

Such steps, in the midst of an increase in the measures adopted by the Trump administration against the island, are not a surprise, especially if one considers that in June, the Miami City Commission passed a resolution to ask the US Congress to veto the hiring of Cuban artists.

More:
https://www.plenglish.com/index.php?o=rn&id=50399&SEO=us-steps-up-hostility-towards-cuba-with-attacks-on-cultural-exchanges







Joe Carollo says that Gente de Zona will not perform at Bayfront Park: «The only possibility that people from Zona will sing is that Díaz Canel invites them to sing for him in Havana»
By ANA LOPES
December 24, 2019



An exclusive report by AmericaTeVe confirmed that since December 21 a letter sent to the Pitbull group and the organizers of the year-end event at Bayfront Park announced that billboard advertising with the Cuban group was not correct since it was not He would show up that night.

América Noticias learned that the board of the Bayfront Park trust provides for the celebrations of the New Year about 425 thousand dollars, in addition to having the last word on who is presented there.

In this regard, Commissioner Joe Carollo said: "That contract says that we have to approve any singer they were going to play."

On whether there is any possibility for People of Zone to sing in the event the commissioner added: «The only possibility that may exist where the People of Zone sing, is if Díaz Canel wants to invite him and send him a plane to go to sing for him again in Havana ».

The suspension of this presentation of Gente de Zona is already seen as another blow to the controversial group, which is in the eye of criticism in Miami since in 2017, aka El Cangrejo, the grandson of dictator Raúl Castro, climbed to a stage in Cuba to dance with them.

More:
https://www.cubaenmiami.com/joe-carollo-asegura-que-gente-de-zona-no-se-presentara-en-el-bayfront-park-la-unica-posibilidad-de-que-cante-gente-de-zona-es-que-diaz-canel-los-invite-a-cantar-para-el-en-la-habana/


You may recall that "Loco Joe" Carollo was the Mayor of Miami during the Elián González Spectacular, when the Miami "exile" community saw the little boy on the innertube from Cuba as a football, and decided he was their property and could not be returned to his father, stepmother, two brothers, four grandparents, and a crowd of cousins and schoolmates and neighbors he grew up with.

Loco Joe Carollo devoured the attention and the scenery, grandstanding, probably hoping to ride the wave of publicity to the White House!

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A Brief History of Miami Commissioner Joe Carollo's Craziest Moments
JERRY IANNELLI | MAY 14, 2018 | 9:00AM

Joe Carollo. Even uttering his name can raise the blood pressure among those who have followed Miami politics since the early '90s. Miamians tend to shrug off political lunacy, so it takes a special kind of elected official to earn the moniker "Loco Joe." Remember when a shark rode Metromover in 2009 and most locals simply shrugged and moved on? Even those people think Carollo is crazy, and not in a funny way.

. . .

A Brief History of Miami Commissioner Joe Carollo's Craziest Moments
JERRY IANNELLI | MAY 14, 2018 | 9:00AM

Joe Carollo. Even uttering his name can raise the blood pressure among those who have followed Miami politics since the early '90s. Miamians tend to shrug off political lunacy, so it takes a special kind of elected official to earn the moniker "Loco Joe." Remember when a shark rode Metromover in 2009 and most locals simply shrugged and moved on? Even those people think Carollo is crazy, and not in a funny way.

. . .
Miami Mayor Joe Carollo was freed from jail on bond Thursday after agreeing to stay away from his wife, whom he allegedly hit on the head with a terra cotta tea caddy.


Carollo, 45, was arrested Wednesday on a misdemeanor battery charge and spent the night in jail. The incident rapidly became the talk of a town with a track record of embarrassing behavior by senior officials.
https://www.miaminewtimes.com/news/joe-carollos-five-craziest-moments-as-a-politician-10342796

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Miami's Teapot Dome Scandal
FEBRUARY 8, 2001 / 9:59 AM / AP



Miami Mayor Joe Carollo was freed from jail on bond Thursday after agreeing to stay away from his wife, whom he allegedly hit on the head with a terra cotta tea caddy.

Carollo, 45, was arrested Wednesday on a misdemeanor battery charge and spent the night in jail. The incident rapidly became the talk of a town with a track record of embarrassing behavior by senior officials.

. . .

His actions during the Elian saga inspired some Miami residents to pelt City Hall with bananas, deriding the city as a "banana republic."

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/miamis-teapot-dome-scandal/

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Cuban reggaeton group Gente de Zona pulled from New Year’s Eve Miami concert
BY MARIO PENTÓN AND SARAH MORENO
DECEMBER 24, 2019 04:29 PM


Gente de Zona, the popular Cuban reggaeton duo, will be excluded from the annual New Year’s Eve concert organized by Cuban-American artist Armando Christian Pérez, known as Pitbull, at Bayfront Park in downtown Miami, Mayor Francis Suarez told el Nuevo Herald. Miami Commissioner Joe Carollo, who heads the organization that manages Bayfront Park, also confirmed the group’s exclusion.

“My office contacted the organizers of the event to respectfully ask that they analyze the participation of these artists and the history of Gente de Zona with the Cuban regime,” Suarez said in a telephone interview. “We have seen how Raúl Castro’s favorite grandson danced on stage at their concert and how they asked the audience to publicly recognize Miguel Díaz-Canel as president.”

The mayor said he knows that there are segments of the South Florida community who like the group’s music but said there are also many people with “open wounds” because of the way the musicians behave. The two singers — Alexander Delgado and Randy Malcom — frequently travel to the island and have not publicly condemned human rights violations in that country.

. . .

Mayor Suarez supports the federal government’s decision to deny funds to cultural exchange programs with Cuba. The mayor sponsored a resolution in Miami that denies local government funds and support for these types of activities.

Last month, Suarez pushed for the cancellation of a concert in Allapattah by Haila María Mompié, a Cuban artist declared persona non grata in Miami for singing to Fidel Castro about a decade ago.

More:
https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/article238696643.html



Mayor Francis X. Suarez
Miami
Yet another South Florida genius.